2019-11-27 10:28:00 / Posted by to Convert PDF Follow @ lily jones
Here you will find a list of the best tools to convert PDF to CSV on Mac and Windows. Some of them also work great on scanned PDF files.
PDF (Portable Document Format) documents and CSV (Comma Separated Values) spreadsheets are the common types of files we often deal with at work and in life. Sometimes, we need to convert PDF files to CSV format. By doing so, we can extract table from PDF, sort the data and make the data easy to use.
My bank only exports PDFs of my bank statements. I have a lot of expenses to log from the last year. What's the best way to import in to desktop QuickBooks? ― A question from the QuickBooks Community
In such a case, one solution is to convert PDF to CSV, which will make the import possible and easy to do.
Convert all PDFs, including scanned/image-based ones, to CSV
Also change any PDF to 15 other formats like Word, PowerPoint, EPUB, text, JPG, PNG, etc.
Convert both PDFs and images (JPG, PNG, TIFF and more) to supported output formats
Provide batch conversion
Offer OCR feature with 27 recognition languages
Keep the original formatting, layout, hyperlinks, etc.
Provide other features such as PDF image extractor
Free DownloadSupport OS: OS X 10.10 or later, including macOS 10.15 Catalina
To quickly convert PDF to CSV on Mac, you can use professional software like Enolsoft PDF Converter with OCR. It works offline and provides safe, reliable, easy and customizable PDF conversion.
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Step 1. Download and install this PDF to CSV converter for Mac. Launch it. Drag one or more PDF files into the app.
Step 2. Click the output format dropdown list and select to EXCEL.
Tip: By default, the tool will change all pages of a PDF to the output format of your choice. To turn selected pages of a multi-page PDF into CSV, select Range, specify a page range and hit the Return/Enter key. For example, if only the first 10 pages of a 100-page PDF contain the tables you need, you can enter the page range of 1-10. It will reduce the conversion time.
Step 3. Click the Convert button in the bottom right corner.
Step 4. Now open the Excel file in Microsoft Excel (or LibreOffice, Google Sheets or others). Go to File > Save As. Choose CSV as the output format. Click Save.
When converting scanned PDF to CSV, you can follow the tips below.
Support OS: Windows, macOS
If you are looking for an open-source PDF to CSV converter, then Tabula is worth checking out. You can view the source on GitHub. Note that Windows users need to install the latest version of Java in order to install this app.
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Step 1. Open Tabula. It will run in a browser window. Click the Browse button, select a PDF and click Open. Click Import.
Step 2. Once your PDF is loaded, it’s ready for data extraction. Click the Autodetect Tables button, and the app will automatically detect and select all the tables in your document.
You can also delete or do the selection by hand. Click and drag to draw a box around the table you want to extract to CSV.
Step 3. Before you convert PDF to CSV on Mac or PC, you can click the Preview & Export Extracted Data button to preview the data.
Step 4. Click the Export Format dropdown list and choose CSV.
Step 5. Click the Export button. It will start downloading the CSV file to your computer.
When you convert multiple PDF tables to CSV, here is a tip that may help. Suppose there are multiple tables in a multi-page PDF and the tables you need take the same or very similar formatting. Click and drag a box around the first table you want to extract, and the Repeat this Selection button will pop up. Once you click the button, it will select all the similar tables in the PDF. This way, you can extract them all in one go.
Support OS: Windows, macOS
When it comes to PDF conversion and manipulation, Adobe Acrobat is of course a great choice. The only downside is that it’s expensive. If you already have it installed, you can convert PDF to CSV on Mac or Windows PC with super ease.
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Step 1. In Adobe Acrobat, open a PDF that contains a table.
Step 2. Click the selection tool (cursor icon) from the toolbar. Click and drag from the top left corner of the table and select all the information in the table.
Step 3. Right-click the information and choose Export Selection As.
In the dialog box that appears, select a location on your computer to save the CSV file. Click the Save as type dropdown list and select Comma Separated Values (*.csv).
Step 4. Click the Save button.
Step 1. Select File > Export To > Spreadsheet > Microsoft Excel Workbook.
Step 2. In the dialog box that appears, select CSV as the export format.
Step 3. This step is optional. Click the Settings button in the lower left part of the dialog box, which will open the Save As XLSX Settings window. Select the desired options based on your need. If it's a scanned PDF, make sure you select the checkbox before Recognize text if needed, which will perform OCR on the scanned document.
Step 4. Click Save.
It’s also possible to convert PDF file to CSV online for free. There are a lot of online services that can do the conversion. Online apps have the following advantages and disadvantages.
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With them, you don’t have to download and install anything. Some of them can provide pretty good conversion. Before conversion, you need to upload your PDF to the server of an online service. These services claim that the uploaded and converted files will be deleted from their servers after one hour or two. That being said, it’s recommended to convert confidential, important PDF documents using offline desktop apps.
iLovePDF is one of the best.
Step 1. Go to https://www.ilovepdf.com/pdf_to_excel.
Step 2. Upload a PDF by clicking the Select PDF file button or by dragging and dropping.
Step 3. When your document is fully uploaded, click the Convert to Excel button. It will start processing the conversion from PDF to CSV.
Step 4. Once it’s finishes, click the Download Excel button.
Step 5. Now convert Excel into CSV using a tool of your choice.
There are other web-based PDF converters that you can choose from. Zamzar is one of them. Note that free users can’t upload files that are larger than 1 MB.
Step 1. Go to https://www.zamzar.com/convert/pdf-to-csv/.
Step 2. Click Add Files and select a PDF document to upload.
Step 3. Click Convert Now. Wait for the conversion to complete.
Step 4. After the conversion is completed, you will be presented with a Download button. Click Download.
Above are the common ways and best apps to convert PDF to CSV on Mac and Windows. For an occasional need to transform a text-base PDF file to CSV, online converters can be a good choice. If you are not happy with the result, or you need to do the conversion in a safer manner, you can choose desktop software. To deal with scanned documents, you can use software like Enolsoft PDF Converter with OCR.